Make Smarter Money Decisions That Support Your Retirement

0:00Your car just blew a motor. Your mom needs help with medical bills. You got a raise. These are all money decision opportunities. but they don't have to send you into a tailspin. Let me show you how the system we discussed last episode will help you make choices that move you forward, not sideways.

0:25Hey there and welcome to Wealthy After 40. I'm Dalene Higgins, your podcast host and financial coach. If you're a Gen X woman or couple who's worried about retirement, maybe you feel like you're starting late or don't have enough saved, you're in the right place. This show is all about ditching the financial stress and creating a retirement plan that works for your life now and later. So grab your favorite drink, settle in, and let's figure this out together.

1:03Welcome to the episode. We are on phase three of my retirement ready framework. Last three episodes are part one, part two, but also an overview. So if you missed those, please be sure to go check those out. Today's part three, today's phase of the framework is your money decisions. So in the intro, I shared events that can happen. And it's when these events happen that you need to make a decision. The problem with making money decisions when you don't have a system, you're typically reacting quickly without quote evidence, right? You're using emotion. You're like, I've got to get this solved.

1:56You hurry and think of an option and then you take, you make the decision, which is good. You're making the decision, but more than likely, you're going to regret this decision later or realize maybe it wasn't the best decision. Or heck, you may not even know that, but you're just still trying to make your way through your money, trying to be like, now this is happening. Now this is happening, not realizing it could be stemming from that initial decision. Now, we are a sandwich generation and we are feeling the squeeze. Life is really lifing for us. We are helping parents. We're still helping kids, but we're also saving for our own future.

2:46And the problem with emotional money decisions is that we are stuck without that system to support it. And we are thinking, I have to do this instead of I want to do this. And that's what phase three is all about, is taking us from the move of I have to help my parents, I have to help my children, or I have to save for my future, that have to mentality to, I want to do this. I'm getting really specific for my parents, for my children, for my future. That is what phase three is all about. It's a new decision making process. So when you are faced with a financial decision, And the ones I'm specifically talking about right now are the decisions that someone is asking you to do or something is having you do.

3:49It's pressed upon you. It feels like it's an urgency, immediate thing. It's not from a desire within. Okay, let's start there. And so initially, there is emotions with that. parents, children, family members, whatever it is, what you need to do first is work through the emotion. We're not going to quickly act on making a financial decision. We've got to understand the request. We've got to understand the person's need. We are dealing with another person. And we need to start separating the facts from the feelings. Now you're probably thinking, I thought you were a financial coach. Yes, I am. And I have been trained as a life coach as well.

4:42So I really help clients understand money is more than just numbers on a piece of paper. There is life happening that takes effect on our money. That's what this phase is all about. Learning to separate the facts from the feelings is what I really help clients with. I had a recent client put in a situation and when she came to the coaching session, it was basically saying, I have to do this. That is what I'm trying to help individuals realize is that your money is limited. I don't care who you are, even billionaires. They can't go wild. And you're thinking, but they can. Have you heard of the lottery winners going broke?

5:39Have you heard of the big NFL players going broke? So money is limited. And I really want everybody to move from the I have to to I want to and creating that decision that they can stand behind. All right. So step one, we're going to resolve the emotion first. I had an experience in October when my medical premium raised by, gosh, what was it? 250%. and I went into emotion first. I'm like, we're not going to be able to do this. I don't know how we're going to do this. This is just, we're not going to be able to have medical care. Those are the emotions. To me, as a person who, quote, has control of their money, I let emotions run wild with me for two days.

6:32For two days. Now, sometimes it's going to take a while. And granted, this was a decision I did not have to make immediately. So we have those as well. But I finally resolved the emotion, meaning that I had to accept it was happening. Step two, which is what I did, I turned to my system and tools. This is why phase three can't come before phase two. You've got to have your budget. You've got to have your systems. You've got to know what is happening. So in phase two, your money systems, I talked about a budget framework. I have one. I recreated every year or every time some new things create in there.

7:18So I create my framework new. I went to there. There was my answer. That was where a part of my answer was. But the majority of my answer. It's really important to have that framework, to know when to update that framework, to know what is involved in that framework. That's why I think that is really key. so you can then go to your budget to help you see options it doesn't have to be one thing we can really begin exploring we can begin understanding what this impact of this request decision whatever is going to have on our long-term effects that spreadsheet tool I talk about what is this going to do in three, six, nine months if it's a long-term thing?

8:12What does that look like? What are my trade-offs? What am I giving up? Am I okay with that? Really exploring that and understanding that without guilt or shame. Because again, money doesn't have emotion. our emotions obviously come with it. All right, so step three is we're building a dual growth system. And within the system, you are learning how to balance now and later. Within the system, within phase three, I help you create money rules. These can be things such as simple as I'm going to pay off my debt, but I want to balance my savings along the way. And we create a money rule. I love money rules.

9:08They can also be called boundaries with other situations. But if you're wanting to pay off debt, you focus on one. And once you get it paid off, instead of 100 % snowball or 100 % avalanche, whichever theory you're wanting to do, you then have a 75-25 or a 50-50, something you've already created. Because those of us that are looking at retiring, we can't just 100 % snowball or avalanche unless that is the better decision. But typically not. We have got to feed our retirement. We've got to make sure that is still growing and doing and all of those things. So that is one example of money rules. But it's also exploring what the demands of life are asking you to do and begin to build boundaries.

9:58I've worked with clients before who send money home to their family in another country. And sometimes this is breaking them. This can be with anything, donations, being charitable, being those types of things. If this is exceeding your money, because money ends, I don't care who you are, you've got to create these rules. You've got to create these boundaries. If you do so prior to somebody approaching you, it's much easier to say, I can't do that, or I'm sorry, I'm unable to help, or I can help this way. Being able to be in that situation, this comes as one of the things in your money decisions.

10:45So that's when people are asking of you. Now in the intro, I talked about a raise. Let's talk about something positive here. If you're in a career or you get a promotion where you're getting raises, what are you doing with that raise? Do you have a plan ahead? Does it support your goals? This comes in your money decisions. We look ahead at to what that's going to be, how that's going to fuel your dreams, how that's going to get you to where you want to go. Because, quickly reminding you, phase three is your money decisions which are then going to build into your money freedom. Getting a handle on these things is what's going to feed phase four.

11:33her. So what does phase three do for us? It helps us to have better money conversations. We talked about this in one of the episodes. I had a client who she was doing the managing of the money for her spouse with her spouse. But she said, once I had all of my information there and had my systems, had my tools, and understood it for what we wanted, I was better able to say, we can't do that until next month. Or we can't do that unless we give up this. Being able to have the systems creates the money decisions, which helps support the conversations, which conversations need to happen with certain individuals as we're making these decisions.

12:34She was so grateful. That was one of her biggest takeaways, not only with her spouse, but also with her children. All right. So as I said, your money decisions, real life scenarios are going to, number one, help you know exactly what to do with your raise, how it's going to benefit you. I know a lot of people are like, I got a raise, but I don't know where it went. Let's really look at that. Yes, it can get caught up in employee or employer expenses, but really being ready for that and seeing that. Another real life scenario, a family member needs money. Knowing your limit that you can help without sabotaging your goals.

13:22An unexpected car repair is going to help you avoid buying a new car. I say that, but I've heard it. It depends on the repair. It depends on the all of the things, but this is where you're building your money decisions. You're growing, you're learning. So it's more than just within your sphere of money. It's understanding all of the other aspects. And the final scenario is saying yes to a travel opportunity because you know the trade-offs. You know what you can shift to make that happen and say yes. This phase also changes. Emergencies become less chaotic. You trust yourself with money and decisions feel empowering instead of overwhelming.

14:19It just becomes that first step towards feeling free with your money, which again is phase four. So before we dive into that, your action step from this episode, I want you to identify one money decision you're facing right now, or maybe you recently made, and I want you to walk through that three-step process. Quickly, what is that? Think about the emotions, or if you're still in the emotions, resolve those emotions first. If you have a system or tools, I want you to look at that, determine what your trade-offs are, determine what that does to the long-term effect, and then number three, make your rule, your boundary, your decision.

15:12All right, next episode is the final episode of the framework series. We are talking about your money freedom. These phases build upon one after another, and in their core, they grow and grow. They're not exclusive to one another, but they're in this circle of building and growing and doing. You will still keep using your system. You will still tweak it, manage it, make it work for you the best it can as you're learning to make decisions, as you begin exploring your freedom. That's next week. So just a reminder, better decisions come from better systems. We need to have systems in place that are not only external, but internal as well, and really understand who we are with money.

16:10This is going to be a phase where you explore your values, your goals, your accomplishments, your wins, your challenges. This This is really a phase where you really start blooming, growing, exploring, and lots of wonderful things can happen. So just like last episode, if you have a big takeaway, head over to Instagram, elevate underscore finances. Let me know what you learned from this. What questions you have? What more do you need? If you don't have Instagram, down in the show notes, there's a link for SpeakPipe. Leave me a message. If you leave your email there, I can respond back directly to you.

16:59Also, if you're on my email list, you can send me a message there as well. What was your biggest takeaway? What is your biggest money decision you're struggling with now or that you made and you were wondering? Maybe get a little coaching on that. Reach out. I'd love to hear from you. and next episode will wrap up our final phase of the framework and I'll see you next week. Thanks for tuning in. I hope today's episode helped you feel a little clearer and more confident about your money and reminded you that progress doesn't have to feel overwhelming. If this episode was helpful, I'd love it if you followed the show, left a quick review, or shared it with another Gen Xer who could use this kind of support.

17:41And if you're ready to stop guessing and want clarity around what to focus on next, I invite you to book a free financial clarity call at elevatefinances.us backslash clarity. And remember, retirement isn't just a dream, it's a plan. Let's make it possible together.